Consistently Christian

Today, we are blessed with another thought provoking devotional by one of my fellow WCS teachers/coaches, Catherine Tinkler. As you might remember, Catherine is coming in very early in the morning and running with our crosss country team, coached by Nathan Wagner.

This Wednesday’s cross country practice was all about pace. Coach Wagner, in an effort to help the team realize its importance, set cones at 600 meters and charged us to run at 90% capacity. After a brief break we ran another lap of 600 meters and repeated the process for a total of 4 laps. His point was that as runners we should be able to tell as we run what our time would be. Consistency was the key.

The first lap was just as I suspected it would be with all the runners out pacing me; but, my only thought was “he-he-who.” A little corny sounding I know and for any fellow mothers reading this it actually sounds a lot like how we are told to breathe during child birth. For whatever reason, that has just always been my personal pace, my breathing pattern for every three steps – two breaths in and one out, creating my own rhythm. The second lap the scene changed slightly as I saw the backs of the other runners pulling away from me but some not as quickly as the first time around. By the third lap a couple of runners were clearly slower than on the prior two, one runner even stopping to walk for a while. My only thought was “he-he-who.”

Later, I learned that Coach Wagner told the team that I had the most consistent times between all the laps run, all within 3 seconds of each other. There were others not as steady, as I witnessed from my perspective at the back of the pack. For a brief moment during my up close and personal replaying of the well-known story “the Tortoise and the Hare,” it made me wish I were young, that I had more energy, more drive. But, with that wish I would have given up something equally important – my consistency.

How often do we look at our new brothers and sisters in Christ and wish that we could feel that “first love” again? It’s great to experience this alertness as we begin our walk with Jesus – on fire and ready to tell others about our Savior. But, we should not discount the equally pleasurable moments of a steady walk with Christ, this path that may look slower but one that keeps us in the race nonetheless. That’s the kind of Christian I want to be, a child running a race that I already know I will win. One that knows it is not about how fast I get to the finish line but that I am able to keep consistently running the race.
Catherine Tinkler

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1
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